And we’re happy to report it already looks better than a Juke.
American marque Ford is really not letting up. At a ‘Go Further’ event in Amsterdam, the firm showed off their new Puma, but only briefly, and they did their level best to prevent any clear sight of the thing. A dark stage, a ridiculous amount of lasers, and (allegedly) some dry ice effect did their best to obscure views of the new compact crossover, though certain details were obvious.
The most obvious were the headlights of course, which feature a design motif that reminds this writer of the Ford GT supercar. There’s also a rather pert front end with what appears to be a rather bluff fascia, which evokes the Tesla Model Y for some reason. What’s also visible from the brief drive it took across the stage is that it has regular rear door handles, as opposed to the usual ‘hidden rear handle’ treatments that cars like the Toyota C-HR and Honda HR-V go for.
The Puma is set to go on sale in Europe later this year, and while there’s no mention of the car being launched elsewhere, trademarks of the ‘Puma’ name locally & New Zealand suggest that the small crossover will not be limited to just Europe. It will share much with the Ford Fiesta and, like the hatch, it’ll come first with a 1.0-litre three-cylinder EcoBoost mill powering the front wheels.
It’s said that the turbo-triple will receive a 48V mild-hybrid setup, pushing total output to something around 115kW. And while this will be enough to satiate most buyers, Ford has clarified that there is no technical or packaging reason not to try and shoehorn the 1.5-litre turbocharged EcoBoost engine from the Ford Fiesta ST into the Puma at a later date.
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